The last thing I wanted to do was start an argument of any sorts here.

All I can see is that when I bought the Burny, I was a newbie to the MIJ market (less so now, but I'm still not exactly that clued-up anyway), and I trusted the seller. Some kind of undisputed resource perhaps would have helped so that I could have checked the dating myself, instead of taking the word of the seller without question. I perhaps should have been more rigorous with my questioning, but short of being an expert in the field I don't see how I could have known if what I was being told was the truth or not.

Anyway, I guess there isn't 100% clarification on the date of my particular Burny. But it's quite concerning to know that any seller may be making claims that he is not sure of, especially when these claims can hike up the price.

I will have to talk to Mark again I suppose and see what his take on this is.

Hi all , c'mon Mark {villager} i'm keen to know where you got the information to date this guitar, i have an earlie 80's RR custom and it has the correct "split diamond" inlay and i have seen plenty of these. The blue one in question is more than likely a late eighties or early nineties model, they pop up on yahoo japan all the time. Not trying to be a smart arse, i'd just like to know how you came to this conclusion.

TF member bart was nice enough to post a link to the 1985 Fernandes catalog (thanks BART ) in another thread http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=61990&highlight=#61990 and from looking at page 39, it is plain to see that the RLC models have the correct 5 piece head stock inlay, not the later 'lightning bolt' style inlay such as Sam's (blue) RLC